The discussion below is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Waterjet systems for cutting various forms of material are well known. In one known system, the waterjet cutter includes a large bath where a plate to be cut is disposed above the surface of the water in the bath. The waterjet cutter is commonly used to cut plates to obtain the workpiece where the waterjet stream is generally oriented towards the water bath. In this manner, energy of the waterjet stream after cutting through the material of the plate is dissipated in the water bath.
Another form of waterjet cutter includes a waterjet stream catcher that has an aperture in a housing that is spaced apart from an end of a nozzle of the waterjet cutter. The portion of the workpiece to be cut is disposed between the end of the waterjet nozzle and the aperture in the housing. The housing is fixedly connected to the waterjet nozzle so as to maintain the fixed relationship between the end of the nozzle and the aperture of the housing. In this manner, although the waterjet nozzle can be moved in up to six degrees of freedom in order to make a selected cut in the material to obtain the workpiece, the housing will track with the nozzle such that the waterjet stream after cutting the workpiece will enter the housing through the aperture. A vacuum hose is typically connected to the housing to remove the water and commonly at least some of the material cut from the housing in order to allow continuous operation.
Improvements to such a system are always desired.